A day in the life of YouTube’s reigning queen of teens.
HAVE YOU SEEN the one where Lele Pons farts in front of her crush?
The 30-second video got 11.5 million views on Instagram a few months ago. It goes like this: Lele walks out of an apartment building with this gorgeous guy and then, pffrrt. Nightmare. The guy totally hears it, but Lele blames her girlfriend across the way, who starts beatboxing fart sounds. Suddenly, a whole crew of Lele’s friends shows up, rapping and dancing along to a defiant chorus of “She didn’t pass gas.” The guy starts dancing, too. Lele is saved. But then, caught up in the flatulent celebration, the guy farts. LOL! Eww.
“How to save yourself when farting in front of your crush” is exactly the kind of comedy tweens want to watch online, and Lele—a bleached-blonde social-media sensation with cheerleader looks and an unending willingness to make goofy faces—is a master of the form. She honed her skills on Vine, the now-defunct platform for six-second videos, and went on to become its “most looped” user of all time before moving over to YouTube and Instagram.
Though Lele is now 20 years old, most of her videos deal with middle- and high-school problems: crazy cliques, cheating boyfriends, math. Across her accounts, she has over 21 million rabid followers, most of them ages 13 to 24, and her command of the coveted Gen-Z audience has made her a star. In the past year, she has won a Teen Choice Award, landed a CoverGirl contract, and walked in the Dolce & Gabbana show in Milan alongside fellow “influencers” like Sofia Richie and Lucky Blue Smith.
This story is from the May 1–14, 2017 edition of New York magazine.
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This story is from the May 1–14, 2017 edition of New York magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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